page_title: Stockton and Darlington Railway
section_title: Railway operations in the 1830s
hierarchical_section_title: Stockton and Darlington Railway / The way north / Railway operations in the 1830s
caption_attribution_description: English: "Middlesbrough" locomotive built by William Lister, c.1838/9 for Stockton and Darlington Railway
context_page_description: The Stockton and Darlington Railway was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington in County Durham, and was officially opened on 27 September 1825. The movement of coal to ships rapidly became a lucrative business, and the line was soon extended to a new port and town at Middlesbrough. While coal waggons were hauled by steam locomotives from the start, passengers were carried in coaches drawn by horses until carriages hauled by steam locomotives were introduced in 1833.
  The S&DR was involved in the building of the East Coast Main Line between York and Darlington, but its main expansion was at Middlesbrough Docks and west into Weardale and east to Redcar. It suffered severe financial difficulties at the end of the 1840s and was nearly taken over by the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, before the discovery of iron ore in Cleveland and the subsequent increase in revenue meant it could pay its debts.
context_section_description: By 1839 the track had been upgraded with rails weighing 64 lb/yd (32 kg/m). The railway had about 30 steam locomotives, most of them six coupled, that ran with four-wheeled tenders with two water butts, each capable of holding 600 imperial gallons (2,700 l; 720 US gal) of water. The line descended from Shildon to Stockton, assisting the trains that carried coal to the docks at a maximum speed of 6 mph (9.7 km/h); the drivers were fined if caught travelling faster than 8 mph (13 km/h), and one was dismissed for completing the forty-mile return journey in ​4 ¹⁄₂ hours. On average there were about 40 coal trains a day, hauling 28 waggons with a weight of 116 tons. There were about 5000 privately owned waggons, and at any one time about 1000 stood at Shildon depot.
  The railway had modern passenger locomotives, some with four wheels There were passenger stations at Stockton, Middlesbrough, Darlington, Shildon and West Auckland, and trains also stopped at Middlesbrough Junction, Yarm Junction, Fighting Cocks and Heighington. Some of the modified road coaches were still in use, but there were also modern railway carriages, some first class with three compartments each seating eight passengers, and second class carriages that seated up to 40. Luggage and sometimes the guard travelled on the carriage roof; a passenger travelling third class suffered serious injuries after falling from the roof in 1840. Passenger trains averaged 22–25 mph (35–40 km/h), and a speed of 42 mph (68 km/h) was recorded. Over 200,000 passengers were carried in the year to 1 October 1838, and in 1839 there were twelve trains each day between Middlesbrough and Stockton, six trains between Stockton and Darlington, and three between Darlington and Shildon, where a carriage was fitted with Rankine's self-acting brake, taken over the Brussleton Inclines, and then drawn by a horse to St Helens Auckland. The Bradshaw's railway guide for March 1843, after South Church opened, shows five services a day between Darlington and South Church via Shildon, with three between Shildon and St Helens. Also listed were six trains between Stockton and Hartlepool via Seaton over the Clarence Railway and the Stockton and Hartlepool Railway that had opened in 1841.
  By this time Port Darlington had become overwhelmed by the volume of imports and exports and work started in 1839 on Middlesbrough Dock, which had been laid out by William Cubitt, capable of holding 150 ships, and built by resident civil engineer George Turnbull. The suspension bridge across the Tees was replaced by a cast iron bridge on masonry piers in 1841. After three years and an expenditure of £122,000 (equivalent to £9.65m at 2011 prices), the formal opening of the new dock took place on 12 May 1842. The S&DR provided most of the finance, and the dock was absorbed by the company in 1849.
caption: The steam locomotive Middlesbrough introduced in 1839
exif: {"Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint.NET v3.5.11", "Image DateTime": "2012:08:31 20:42:20", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image ExifOffset": "160", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:08:29 12:42:42", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "0199f2cb352ba028844a4d2972a56285"}